Class ring returned after four decades

Missing since owner died in overdose

Wills High graduate Steve Richardson died at a house party on Lake Alatoona in north Georgia in 1978. The class ring he wore went missing that night and was lost for nearly four decades. - photo by Associated Press

W Steve Richardson — Wills High graduate Steve Richardson died at a house party on Lake Alatoona in north Georgia in 1978. The class ring he wore went missing that night and was lost for nearly four decades. - photo by Associated Press

MARIETTA — Nearly four decades after Wills High School graduate Steve Richardson and a friend died of drug overdoses at a party on Lake Allatoona, his class ring was returned to his family.Richardson, a 19-year-old carpenter, died along with his friend Steve Byers on Aug. 19, 1978, after the two drank a lethal cocktail of Gatorade and MDA, an amphetamine-based psychedelic, at a house party along Kellogg Creek in Cherokee County, the MDJ reported at the time.Family members described Richardson as hard-working and playful, a strapping young man who stood about six-foot-five and exceled as a marksman in Wills' ROTC program. But they never found the class ring he always wore, the one engraved with his initials and set with a deep blue stone. Until now."I'd completely given up on it," said Donna Smith, Richardson's sister who now lives in Alpharetta.

Associated Press

Associated Press